First lawsuit filed against President Trump's 'unprecedented' national emergency declaration

President Trump turns back to the audience after announcing that he would declare emergency to secure funding for his border wall. (Susan Walsh / AP)

A prominent government watchdog group filed a lawsuit over President Trump’s national emergency declaration just hours after he announced it Friday, marking the first of what is expected to be a litany of legal challenges.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has sued the Trump administration dozens of times in the past over other issues, submitted a complaint in federal court in D.C. contending the Justice Department had failed to back up the legality of the President’s controversial declaration, which he made in order to secure funding for his long-promised border wall with Mexico.

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Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of CREW, said the Justice Department had blown a deadline to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request it submitted last month demanding any communications or legal opinions pertaining to Trump’s order.

The lawsuit asks that a judge compel the Justice Department to release all those communications in order to show whether there’s any legal authority for the emergency declaration.

“The Justice Department’s inadequate response raises major questions about whether even the President’s own administration believes there is a legal basis for him to bypass the constitutional authority granted to Congress to appropriate funds,” Bookbinder said.

Bookbinder added, “Americans deserve to know the true basis for President Trump’s unprecedented decision to enact emergency powers to pay for a border wall.”

Trump’s order drew ire from Democrats, who say the President is violating the Constitution by circumventing Congress’s role as a co-equal branch of government.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pledged to introduce a bill that would block Trump’s order, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged her Republican colleagues to stand up to the President’s “unlawful declaration.”

Donald Trump in the White House

Beyond CREW, the American Civil Liberties Union announced it was prepping a lawsuit against Trump’s “blatantly illegal declaration” and Protect Democracy, another government watchdog group, also said it was gearing up to sue.